


Falling into the clutches.

by arfrid



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Minor Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26051029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arfrid/pseuds/arfrid
Summary: Mike grabs Max's hand and swiftly turns towards the door, but vines have grown on them that weren't there a second ago. “Oh, shit.”ORThe fic in which I have way too many different Flayed!AUs and they're all angsty
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Mike Wheeler
Kudos: 12





	Falling into the clutches.

Mike picks up the radio. He turns around and looks at the redhead before him with mock sadness.

“It’s too late to back out now, Zoomer.” Mike sighs dramatically. Max rolls her eyes, but it’s clear they have a smile hidden in them. Mike holds the supercomm closer to his mouth. “Ranger. Bard. Come in, would you please come in.”

 _“Copy that, Paladin, what’s your call? Over.”_ Dustin says after a long moment of silence.

“Me and Zoomer are going on a quest of rediscovery. And apologies. Over.” He adds, hoping to make them go away quicker. He hears a snicker from their Ranger and then their Mage enters conversation.

“Mike, why can’t we hang out?” Mike smiles at the sound of her voice. Max rolls her eyes again. “Oh, Over.”

“I swear, Mage, that the moment I come back I will read you more comic books in the pillow fort.” He starts to blush; reading more comic books is code for “We’re kissing”. He can hear her smiling on the other side of the radio. “Oh, also, call me Paladin. Over.”

“Okay. Pa-La-Din.” She spells it out. “Okay, Paladin! Over.”

He turns it off, a grin wide on his face. “Uhm, hello? Earth to Michelangelo Edward Wheeler?”

Mike frowns at the name and looks over to a hand wave over his face. He slaps it out the way and looks over at the owner of the hand. Max stops waving and crosses her arms.

She shakes her head, chuckling.

“Lovebirds.” She mutters, starting to walk out. Mike hastily follows after, playfully angry.

“Hey, it’s not like you and Lucas are any better!” He tells her. He’s happy to see the intended effect; Max’s cheeks turn redder than her hair. She mutters a ‘Shut up, Wheeler’ and walks faster. He redirects the topic to the thing they’re doing. “You’re sure you want to know where it all started?”

“Just show me, Wheeler.” She says. He huffs and leads her to the Byers’ Shed. He shows her the gun that was used and her breath hitches. She also shows it the part that used to be a passage to the Upside-Down was boarded up.

They’re about to move on when Max says something.

“Hold up… Is it… _Moving_?” She asks. Mike looks behind and sees the fleshy and hole _was_ indeed moving. Wait. Upside-Down goo wasn’t fleshy. The light flickers. Mike’s pulse quickens.

“We need to go.” He says, and grabs her hand and turns towards the door, but vines have grown on them, at least half a foot long. “Oh, shit.”

Max grabs the gun, loads it and aims it at the door. She shoots it once, but it only makes an angry screeching sound. There’s a low growling sound somewhere, but Mike can’t pinpoint where it is until it’s right behind them.

“Shit! Max, Max!” She turns around and he gestures frantically at the fleshy _arm_ protruding from the entrance of the hole. She mutters many curse words, and attempts shooting it, but it grabs hold of her leg and drags her into the hole quicker than Mike can react. Her screams remain in the Shed, there but not really there.

“Shit!” He shouts and jumps in after her. He looks around at the dark, blue echo of their Hawkins, their _world_. Mike looks around for her frantically and sees the form of an unconscious redheaded girl. “Max!”

He runs over to her and immediately checks her pulse, sighing in relief when he felt it.

He looks around the echo of his world, and is interrupted by gagged coughing. Mike whips around sees Max coughing, struggling to breathe.

_Shit, shit. What was it we learned in that medical class?_

He pumps her chest hard (refusing to do mouth-to-mouth) until he doesn’t hear the coughing anymore. She clings to him, staggering as she tries to get up.

“Let’s get outta here.” He says. She nods and they turn towards the mimic of the shed only to freeze. There, by it were him and Max, except Max was fine. Multiple people then started appearing by the Shed, walking towards them. There were all types of people; old women, teenagers, kids. There was no classifying them, apart from them all seeming human.

The clones of them both walked towards them, and Mike froze up, realizing that they had the exact same clothes as them. Max seemed to realize this too, because she started trembling.

 _“Ready to build?”_ They both said in unison, using a voice that wasn’t theirs.

“Build… what?” Max asked. Mike shuddered as their clones answered.

_“What you see.”_


End file.
